I'm back...

So I've been away for a week or so, I know. My day job, freelance work and travel have made it hard for me to post, but I'll make up for it with some images, a few stories and some notable openings in today's post. If you're curious as to where I've been, well, I've been doing a lot of back and forth between my home office in Omaha and my real office in Lincoln for my day job. When I get home, I'm beat. This weekend, I was in Chicago for Lollapalooza and some relaxing fun - the trip was a Christmas present to my significant. So there you are. On to some art.

First, two openings I'm excited about and two events I plan to attend. Both, coincidetally, capture images -- though vastly different ones -- of Nebraska.

Artist Keith Jacobshagen is showing Journals of the Days at Lauritzen Gardens, and the show includes 20 of his sketches and journal entries from field notebooks. I love Jacobshagen’s beautiful Nebraska landscape paintings; so for me, this is a can’t miss show. He’ll give a lecture on Aug. 21 at 6:30 p.m. about his journaling process, which lead to his final works of art. The lecture is $10 for the general public and free for art students with ID. Reservations are required; make them by calling 346.4002, extension 201. (I'm making a note to be sure and attend this one.)

Another artist whose work I quite like has a show opening in Lincoln’s Great Plains Art Museum. Michael Farrell’s Hinterlands runs at the gallery, 1155 Q St., through October. The show of gelatin prints includes images from Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado from the remote locations Farrell most favors: low population, stark landscape, inaccessibility and a void of tourists are the types of places he photographs. "These are parts of Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado where you can spend an entire day on back country roads or trails and not see another person,” he said. “These places, even though they appear rugged or harsh, are also fragile environments that may not survive, as we experience them now, too far into the future." The show will open officially on Lincoln’s September 5 First Friday, from 5-7 p.m. At left is one of his images of Nebraska. Starkly beautiful, no?

Blogging, though a somewhat time consuming pursuit, can also lead to some unexpected connections. Since I revived Week Fifty Two, I've been in touch with a pair of editors working on a new volume of essays exploring the work of one of my favorite artists, Chris Ware. I've also received an email from friend and Omaha artist Kenneth Adkins, who told me that not only has he relocated to Rhode Island, he's also opening a show this month at Gallery 070 in Vashon Island, Washington. I'm hoping to post a question and answer session with the Ware editors and a ful update on Adkins and his new work on the blog in the coming month. And because I couldn't wait to show a new piece of Adkins, here's the image from the postcard he sent me in the mail. Enjoy.

Farrell image "Nebraska" courtesy of the Great Plains Art Center. Kenneth Adkins "Study for the Hamburger Lady, 2008, mixed media, 8x10" courtesy of Gallery 070.